Universidad Católica Boliviana wins justice access hackathon

An interdisciplinary team from the Universidad Católica Boliviana San Pablo, La Paz campus, won first place in the “Hackathon Ideas Innovadoras para Proyectos de Acceso a la Justicia” organized by Fundación CONSTRUIR. The team competed against 27 other groups.

The winning proposal, titled “Uma Thakhi,” focuses on strengthening socio-environmental justice regarding water pollution. A key component of the project is “YAKU,” a technological tool designed to help communities identify, recognize, and report water-related issues that impact health, production, and territory.

The project utilizes a “One Health” approach, treating human, animal, and ecosystem health as interdependent. The YAKU tool includes accessibility features for areas with limited connectivity or technical language barriers, providing educational materials, community forms for documentation, and a preliminary institutional route to guide reports to the appropriate public entities.